Blessed Anna Maria Taigi (1769-1837) wife, mother and visionary
Early life
Anna Maria Gesualda was born in 1769. She came from a moderately wealthy family of apothecaries in Siena.
The
family business failed when she was six and they had to move to Rome
where she grew up in real poverty. Her parents had to work as domestic
servants.
Schooling and marriage
After her schooling she
could recite most of the psalms by heart, but could scarcely read or
write.
Her father found employment with a relative of the prominent
Chigi family and Anna fell in love with Domenico Taigi, the kitchen
porter for Prince Chigi, who used to bring food to her family from the
Chigi palace.
They married - he was twenty eight, she was twenty. They
had seven children, three of whom died.
Holiness and tensions
Married life was hard enough. Domenico was a bit coarse, but when Anna's mother moved in it caused untold difficulties as she proved quite interfering. Anna Maria herself felt a call to expiate for the sins of the world by exceptional penances.
She had a vision of a dazzling globe surrounded by a crown of
thorns where she could see present and future events anywhere in the
world as well as the state of grace of individuals, living and dead.
Domenico, not having any such vision, became ill-tempered and demanding.
Also Napoleon's invasion of Rome caused the Chigi family to leave Rome
and so Domenico was unemployed for some time.
Works of charity, prayer, and spiritual advice
Anna
felt called to engage in many practical works of charity - caring for
the sick and dying in hospitals, helping battered wives and even looking
after stray cats.
Many famous people - such as Napoleon's mother
Letizia Buonaparte and the daughter of the queen of Spain Marie-Louise
de Bourbon - heard of her great powers and came seeking spiritual
advice.
She had become a tertiary of the Order of the Trinity and later
became the centre of a confraternity which met every Friday for the
Stations of the Cross and prayer.
Her death and beatification
Anna's health failed
and she died in 1837.
The process for her beatification brought many
testimonies of her holiness from nobles, cardinals and even the pope.
Benedict XV beatified her in 1920 holding her as an example of how an
ordinary mother can become a saint and influence others by her
spirituality.
Her feast is kept on the 9th June.